


A London Love Layover

by Turtlelady9



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence, Eventual Happy Ending, F/F, Mention of past major character injury, More angsty than intended, Pre-Relationship, Reunion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2019-02-24 03:41:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13205127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Turtlelady9/pseuds/Turtlelady9
Summary: Unexpected Angsty Supercat reunion abroad a few years after Cat leaves National City.





	A London Love Layover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara and Cat have an overseas airport reunion with secrets and feelings spilled out.

It's early in the afternoon on New Year's Eve 2019 when Kara patiently stands in a rather long security line in London's Heathrow airport with a first class ticket to Metropolis in her hand. She plans to visit Clark and Lois and their newly adopted baby girl for either a month or a few to help kick off the next decade of her life on a more positive note than the past few years have started. She can work freelance as an investigative journalist on alien and human relations matters like she has been. She will still occasionally check-in with the _Daily_ _Planet_ Metropolis news network hub.

There's a light snow in the air when Kara leaves Eliza's newer London apartment flat behind her after she spends the past few months there. Her adopted mother is there with her for most of the time she spends there until only a few days ago when she leaves for an alien bio-genetics conference in France.

Kara briefly considers joining Eliza there to cover the conference as her journalist self, but she needs to avoid anyone that might recognize her as an alien, who looks suspiciously like Supergirl, who as far as the larger world knows _is gone_. It's been a little over a year since Kara _officially_ _retired_ from her public Supergirl persona. Well, retired is putting it mildly. Her hands were tied. It was much more forced than wanted. It was necessary. She's very simply not the same alien nor heroine anymore.

She more frequently flies on regular airplanes just like normal humans do now. It has taken Kara a long time to get used to the whole caged chicken in motion mundane process of the full airport and airplane experience, especially, with all her other senses heightened around the still crucial one that is missing. It's almost an hour before she gets through the long line when she hears a very familiar voice and phrase yelled out behind her.

"Chop! Chop! I don't have all day here, mister!"

A rush of excitement runs rampant throughout Kara's whole body followed by a brisk flood of nerves and fear that pumps its way through the blood in her veins. She truly wishes she could turn and look. But, she won't even be able to truly see Cat so why bother with the heartbreak of someone else finding out the harsh truth she lives with now.

Kara sits down at her terminal gate and closes her heavy, yet hardened eyes. She gets lost in her head for a few minutes. When she hears a loud thud, her dimmed eyes snap open and she spots a vague shadow of what she presumes to be a large handbag sitting in the chair beside her.

" _Keira_ , is that _really_ you? You seem so  _different_ for some reason.

Very reluctantly and softly Kara answers, "Hello, _Miss_ _Grant_."

" _Keira_ , _it_ _is_ _you_! You do know you can call me _Cat_ , now, right?"

"Please _Cat_ , can you call me, _Kara_ , now too? I know that  _you_ _know_ my _real_ name."

"Oh, _Kara_! Yes, of course. My sincerest apologies. How did we fall so far apart and out of each other's _orbits_?"

Kara snappily answers, " _You_ _never_ _came_ _back_ _not_ _even_ _once_ back then, _that's_ _why_!"

" _Excuse_ _me_?"

" _Not_ _one_ of the _three_ _times_ I was very _seriously_ injured did you _ever_   _care_ to _even_ _place_ a phone call to  _check_ _up_ on _me_!"

Kara hears soft curls move as Cat shakes her head. "You are _quite_ _mistaken_ , Kara! I _promise_ you I most certainly  _did_. Just a few hours after you fell from the sky after that first fight with that frightful  _Reign_ creature. I _burst_  right in with bats swinging into that poorly veiled secretive organization holding you. Agent Scully, I'm sorry, I mean your _lovely_ sister, Alex, and her, _presumably_ , alien partner and friend Agent Mulder didn't protest when I _demanded_ to see you. Of course having the President of the free world standing directly behind me helped shut down any _protestation_ from _anyone_!"

" _Why_ _then_? Why weren't you _there_ _still_ when I woke up? _Where_ did you _go_?"

"There were enough people _scurrying_ around who _were_ there for you. Some _rude_ young man I didn't recognize sat there diligently by your bedside. He _refused_ to let go of your hand for others to hold it even when someone said the glaring woman standing right behind him was his wife. I thought you neither _needed_ me nor _wanted_ me there too. You had to recover for your mission to complete. I would have been just a big, unnecessary _distraction_."

Kara protests, " _You_ are _so_ wrong yourself because I _did_ need you and I _did_ want you there! Why did you have to be so _bull-headed_  and decide on _your_ own what I needed and wanted? And, What about the other two times?"

"Oh, Kara. We can not  go back now! If I had stayed, I have no idea what may have happened. I have no clue whether my presence may have helped or hindered you. I never wanted you to _risk_ either getting _hurt_ or even killed in order to _protect_ _me_ of _all_ _people_. The second time you were hurt I know you asked for me. Alex repeatedly called me. But, Carter was in the hospital. You know that _he_ is always _my_ _number_ _one_ priority. I couldn't..."

Kara concernedly interrupts, "Is he _okay_?"

Cat breathes in and out sharply before she calmly replies, " _Yes_. He is _now_. He was hit by a car while riding his mountain bike in DuPont circle. I always told him stick to the bike paths and stay away from the D.C. main streets. Some former friends of his convinced him to ignore my advice. Needless to say, I will neither be able to give him constant correct, but, admittedly smothering, advice nor check in on him so readily anymore."

Kara confusedly ponders, " _What_? _Why_ not? Please tell me he did not move in with his dad? Still, I'm _glad_ that he is _okay_ now!"

Kara can hear Cat smile, but also the sullen tone that fills her voice as she continues, "Thank you, Kara. _No_ , he didn't leave me to live with his _useless_ father. He is here at Oxford University for college."

"Oh! That's _fantastic_! But, oh, yes, umm, about an ocean away from D.C. and his _nagging_ mom."

Cat heartily laughs before she adds, "A bit more than an ocean away from Metropolis."

"You're going to Metropolis, too?"

"Yes, Adam and his wife are there with my newborn granddaughter!"

"Oh, _wow_! That's _wonderful_ news for you! Oddly enough, I'm going to visit Clark and Lois and their newly adopted baby daughter!"

" _Ha_! That's nice for Lois who finally gets to be a mother. It will be interesting to see how that turns out. It could be fun to watch her change a diaper. To see Clark or you do that too would be quite a trip! Perhaps, I should make a surprise stop-in visit to check in with them."

"I'm sure Lois and Clark would enjoy seeing you too, Cat!"

"Yes, hmm, still a maybe. Anyways, to get back to the topic at hand. The third time that you were seriously injured the powers that be around you told me that you were _gone_. I didn't want to believe them. I saw your badly beaten body. with all the protruding broken bones through torn skin and black and blue bruises, which included the blackest marks over your closed, dead eyes. It absolutely _shattered_ me. Your cousin gave his speech at your memorial and I was too torn up to give my own so James spoke for me. But, imagine my _complete_ disbelief and _utter_ shock when I saw you sitting in one of the further back rows next to Lois at your own public memorial service in the National City Park along the waterfront. You didn't even acknowledge me as being present there. Neither a quick look nor a wave. I felt even more devastated. Somehow, I was _not_ _worth_ the _truth_ to _you_. "

Uncontrollable tears roll down Kara's face as she stutters out through sobs, "I, uhh, I swear, I didn't mean to do that to you...Umm, I _didn't_ _see_ you there, Cat. _No_ _one_ _told_ me _you_ _were_ _there_. I _couldn't_ _see_ _you_ then...I _can't_ _see_ _you_ now, Cat."

Cat deeply sighs as she only now notices the closed collapsible plastic walking cane on Kara's lap before she grabs some tissues out of her purse in the chair next to Kara. Cat kneels down on the airport carpet in front of Kara and wipes down and holds onto Kara's cheeks. When she sees how still and absent of light Kara's pupils are she says, " _What_? Wait, You are  _blind_ now, Kara? That's _why_ the _blue_ in your eyes is _so_ _dark_ now?"

" _Yes_. I am wearing false colored contacts so my eyes appear close to normal. Almost everything I can see now is just white light. Sometimes I see dark shadows. Other times there are slight flashes of black and grey and even gold. The gold I think is because of how my vision when I had it used to be augmented in different ways."

" _Oh_ , _my_ _dear_ , _precious_ , _Kara_! Honestly, I had _no_ _idea_ that this happened. I'm so, so sorry it seemed as though I completely up and abandoned and disappeared on you. If I had known what _really_ happened, I would have been there for you _every_ _step_ of the way."

" _No!_ I'm the one who made this decision not to bother too many people with this. I'm sorry I kept _you_ in the dark about me _literally_ living in the dark now."

"Kara, leave it to _you_ to make a joke about something _so_ serious. And, who's the _bull-headed_ one now, not accepting assistance from good _friends_?"

"The last thing I ever wanted was to be any sort of  _burden_ to anyone close to me. I didn't want _you_ of all people who _named_  Supergirl l to think _me_ a _failure_ for hanging up the cape so early on in my hero-ing days. I thought you might try and talk me out of the retirement idea. I did so many tests with that agency I work for. It just wasn't safe for me to try and continue as the heroine I once was before without my eyesight. I still consult with the government on alien matters. I am still the reporter you wanted me to be."

" _Kara Danvers_ , You are _NOT_ a _failure_! You are _very_ , _very_ far from it! I've read your freelance work. You are as  _astonishing_  now as you have always been! Would it be alright if? I mean, may I please give you a hug?"

"Okay, I guess. I _missed_ _you_ , Cat! So _very_ , _very_ much!"

As Cat wraps her arms tightly around Kara, they lean into each other. They both breathe deeply in and out against the crook of each other's necks. Cat feels tears roll down her own cheeks as they hold each other so close.

She starts to whisper to Kara, "I lo--" when at that exact same moment, the airport overhead announcement speakers come on to blast out, "Due to the current inclement weather conditions all flights are _cancelled_ indefinitely."

**Author's Note:**

> I hate writing cliffhangers. This one is a little open ended. I do hope this will have another chapter at some point soon. I have some good ideas for it, but I'm also struggling with writer's block. 
> 
> I know the blindness premise is so/so as Daredevil in the Marvel universe does his vigilante work blind, but flying blind I don't think that would be a great idea. 
> 
> Kara will not get her sight back in this fic - no miraculous fix. I'm not blind myself and this is not meant to offend or reflect anyone who is. It's just a different idea that I thought up. It's something new for Kara to experience in a slightly different way then I imagine how humans experience blindness too. 
> 
> I worked with an agency that helped people who were blind and deaf with social services in the past, but I cannot claim to know what their experiences are like and that's not what this story is about.


End file.
